How to Delete Multiple Git Branches from the Command Line?

Whether you're cleaning up local branches after a feature merge or tidying up remote branches, here’s how you can do it.

Deleting Multiple Local Branches

To delete multiple local branches safely (only if they’ve been merged), use:

git branch -d branch1 branch2 branch3

If the branches haven't been merged and you still want to delete them, force delete with:

git branch -D branch1 branch2 branch3

For remote branches, you can delete them by running:

git push origin --delete branch1 branch2 branch3

Alternatively, you can use the colon : syntax:

git push origin :branch1 :branch2 :branch3

If you want to delete branches that follow a naming pattern (like feature/ branches), you can use grep and xargs:

git branch | grep 'feature/' | xargs git branch -d

To force delete:

git branch | grep 'feature/' | xargs git branch -D

git branch -r | grep 'origin/feature/' | sed 's/origin\///' | xargs -I {} git push origin --delete {}

List branches before deleting: Use git branch for local and git branch -r for remote branches to verify which ones you’re about to delete.
Be cautious with force delete (-D): It will remove branches even if they haven’t been merged, so make sure you won’t lose important work.

Hope you found this useful!